Personality more important to road rage than traffic, experts and police say

Almost anyone who's ever hopped behind the wheel of a car probably knows the rage that comes with being stuck behind someone driving too slow, being in front of someone who wants to go too fast, or watching as another driver weaves in and out of lanes, cutting off everyone else in the process.

Some drivers will let such offenses slide, but others get angry, letting their blood pressure rise in conjunction with their middle fingers.

People occasionally take it further than a rude gesture. Since last week, there have been four local incidents that escalated into violence.

On Oct. 2 a man was stabbed in a 7-11 parking lot after becoming engaged in a tailgating dispute that stretched from Walnut to Glendora.

Two days later, another couple of road-rage incidents occurred. The first was in Arcadia and resulted in one man ramming another's car for tailgating and trying to pass him.

Later that night, a dispute on the 71 Freeway in Chino Hills led to an off-duty police officer shooting two men in a shopping-center parking lot.

And Monday night, a woman was driving in the fast lane of the 210 Freeway through Glendora when she was approached from behind by a car that flashed its highbeams at her, signaling for her to move out of the way. When she refused, the other car sped past her, with its occupants cursing her. Police say a "projectile" of some kind hit the rear window of her car, shattering it.

Road rage is often thought of as a rush-hour phenomenon, becoming more common as traffic grinds to a excruciating crawl, but police and experts say that's a misconception. And there's no difference between the morning drive to work and the afternoon drive home, they said.

Law enforcement agencies don't track road-rage incidents separately from other crimes, and neither does the California Office of Traffic Safety, making statistics unavailable.

Speaking anecdotally, however, police said road rage seems to be increasing. They also said it happens anytime. Of the above mentioned incidents, only one occurred during rush hour.

"I think it can happen anytime," said Lt. Tom LeVeque of the Arcadia Police Department.

Some people get upset when they see other motorists driving badly, even if it doesn't personally affect them. Nemerovski said those kind of people tend to engage in vigilante road rage - blocking someone who is speeding, or trying to prevent someone from driving on the shoulder to get around traffic.

Those people have "higher emotional empathy" that causes them to worry about the safety of other drivers, Nemerovski said. When those drivers act aggressively, they are doing it on behalf of the other drivers who they feel are being endangered.

Albert Sarinana, 52, of Irwindale fit that category. He said his pet peeve is distracted drivers - people talking on their cell phones or texting, people eating, or "chicks putting on their makeup."

"Oh, that gets me so mad," Sarinana said. "I usually honk or something. I have a short fuse sometimes."

Age also plays a factor in road rage, Nemerovski said.

"Older drivers, they're getting to a place where they're getting angry at fewer things in life," he said.

Montes, the driver from Baldwin Park, said as she's gotten older she's learned to make "wise decisions" in her driving.

"When I was first starting driving, I was the one screaming out the window," Montes said.

Brian Santos, 37, of Pasadena, too, said he was hotheaded when he was younger. He said he's calmed down and learned to bite his tongue.

"You never know who you're dealing with these days," Santos said.

That's a message police would like drivers to remember.

"It's just never worth it because you don't know what the other person is capable of," said Glendora police Lt. Brian Summers.

Nemerovski shared a few tips that help keep him calm on the road. They include simple things like leaving 10 minutes early and focus on the scenery.

"Stay out of the left lane as much as you possibly can," he said. "The legal rules of the road do not apply to that lane, a whole other set of rules apply."

He also suggested that people turn off talk radio, regardless of their political affiliations.

"I think people should listen to music that makes them feel good," Nemerovski said.